Mixdown: Bout That Action Edition

Welcome to Mixdown, an ongoing series where Pitchfork contributors talk about mixtapes and mixes that may not be covered in our reviews section but are worth discussing. Today, we're talking about new releases from J. Cole, Tree and a special remix. We welcome Ian Cohen, who's filling in this week for Carrie Battan.

Corban Goble: So this is a free mixtape Cole put out, which includes a lot of his buddies from the Dreamville stable.

Ian Cohen: J. Cole really thought he deserved to do the Pro Bowl halftime show; thinks Fall Out Boy really fell the fuck off after Folie a Deux.

CG: Jordan do you have anything to say about that?

Jordan Sargent: Well, Fall Out Boy did fall the fuck off after Folie a Deux as much as anyone would after writing one of the best rock albums of the last 10 years. Can I make a J. Cole confession here? Remember towards the end of the year when everyone on Twitter was posting their Spotify end-of-year round ups? Well, I did mine and my most streamed song was “Power Trip”, so I decided not to reveal that publicly. UNTIL NOW, of course.

IC: That alone should be enough to get you honorary Dreamville membership. I imagine you’d be able to come up with better names than some of these clowns. “Sarge’ is kinda awesome, though I wonder if the Champaign twee-pop band of the same name would make you lawyer up.

Can we talk for a moment about how “Dreamville” is the softest name for a rap collective ever? J. Cole: mayor of Pleasantville.

CG: There’s definitely a corner of KanyeToThe that has a jpeg of my head on a pike for not loving Born Sinner, but I thought this was fine, or whatever. I feel like he’s the 874th person to flip “Ambitionz of a Ridah” this year, I can’t really explain why that song is having such a moment. He also flips Miguel’s “Do You” and it sounds basically like you imagined it would sound. I feel like J. Cole raps every line like it’s a Twitter bio, “Steve Jobs of the hood” etc.

IC: I skipped straight to “Let the Bitter Man Win,” because I’m always most interested in mixtape tracks that potentially have messed up metadata, a la Das Racist’s “Fake Patios.”

JS: I think the mp3s I have of T.I.’s King still have “Undertaker” as featuring Young Buck and “Young Droop.” This is different conversation entirely, though. This mixtape is decent. I like J. Cole most in R&B/pop mode… which is why I think he’s a consistently enjoyable singles artist but kinda dreary as a capital-R Rapper. That said, “Golden Goals” is a legitimately awesome flow—maybe the best I’ve heard from him. The production on the title track is cool. But I don’t really care what he has to say in a larger sense.

One thing I can’t figure out about his music is why it’s so charmless. At the Born Sinner listening session he told the elongated story behind “Let Nas Down” and it was great! Everyone was laughing… he was a really good storyteller. But that song—and his music in general—is just too… steely, and he can’t pull it off. Certainly not like when Drake does something like “Started From the Bottom.”

IC: This makes me think back to every single B-level indie rock record I’ve reviewed and basically spent 600 words trying to come up with synonyms for words like “listenable” and “tasteful.” J. Cole: rap game Warpaint.

IC: Tree always struck me as a version of David Banner that would probably never, ever, ever make a “Like A Pimp”, but “Probably Nu It” at least gets him close to Banner’s “intimate crunk” phase. I think between him and J. Cole, this is sort of like... I dunno, nu-conscious rap, like conscious rap with imperceptible Collision Course influence.

CG: I think this is interesting in the sense that, they kind of switch up the production on this and I think that creates an interesting tension. I don’t know if Tree's “grizzled bark” works for me, but I think maybe this works on a like, Alpoko Don level. But yeah, I don’t know if The McTreeG EP does much for me outside of shading another corner of the diverse Chicago rap scene (a good illustration of that would be the new bop tape DJ Moondawg just put out).

IC: Yo, keep in mind you’re throwing around terms like “Alpoko Don level” and “new bop tape” and “DJ Moondawg” to a guy who’s not only a first-timer on Mixdown, but who listened to a new Elbow song this morning and thought, “I’m getting too old for this shit.”

JS: It must be sobering to look at the Soundcloud plays for your mixtape and see 20,000 streams on the first two tracks then an immediate drop to 5,000 plays for song 3. This is pretty good, though—“Probably Nu It,” the first track, is a great song. I wouldn’t say that Tree has a one-in-a-million rap voice considering how similar he can sound to David Banner but his rap voice really is something. On other hand it probably limits how far he can push out his sound, but he’s good at what he does.

IC: I don’t think we’ve given enough thought to the name MCTreeG. He should funnel some of that Scion money to hiring McG for a “Probably Nu It” video, get all the original girls from Sugar Ray’s “Fly” or some shit, maybe even Supercat.

Disappointed that “Stay Away” isn’t a Charli XCX sample, what indie-type artist is getting that kind of love on hip-hop beats today? Was listening to Beach House’s Bloom yesterday and realized it’s their only one that hadn’t been sampled by a known R&B or hip-hop act. Does that make it the best Beach House album or the worst?

I think of that Nas line from “Family,” “You should idolize Tree in the flesh, don’t wait til I’m dead to say ‘he’s good at what he does.””

JS: Yeah this Marshawn track is incredible. Way, way better than any meme-turned-song song should ever be. It sounds like the best possible Jibbs comeback single. It (unintentionally?) quotes Lil Reese. It sounds like an upside-down world’s version of “Partition.” Seriously. Marshawn’s entire attitude at Super Bowl Media Day was, “Driver, roll up the partition, please / I don’t need to be talking to Bob Ley” and now we have an appropriately perfect swagged out rap song that drops its synth line like a hammer. No joke, this is probably the best song I’ve heard in 2014.

IC: This is even better than "Abracadabralifornia". The obvious thing that needs to happen is getting Richard Sherman and Lynch on the same track, it’d be a real Rae and Ghost, Gunplay and Rozay, Bob Nanna and Chris Broach kind of dynamic.

CG: Here’s a good Sherman one, not better than Marshawn, but I can rock with it. This one’s for the clubs.

IC: J. Cole feels very disrespected over the fact that we like this Marshawn Lynch song more than this entire career.

Who’s the most meme-able guy on Denver? I guess it’s fitting that Peyton Manning’s most meme-able phrase shares its name with a Counting Crows song.

Let’s talk about the production on this Lynch track, I can imagine some poor assistant being yelled at by an A&R at Roc Nation, trying to find this guy on Twitter, vetting imitators and such and such.

Seattle needed this after Macklemore.

CG: Jordan, you kind of shy?

JS: I’m just ‘bout that action, boss. I feel like Marshawn Lynch’s entire existence running parallel to Macklemore’s rise really absolves the city of Seattle for any and all sins. Now I have to go plan my impromptu Super Bowl party where I mute the TV and put “Bout That Action” on repeat and see who stays at my apartment the longest.